The SharePoint Configuration Wizard (Psconfig) and the Farm Creation Wizard, both of which are run during a Complete installation, configure many of the SharePoint baseline account permissions and security settings.

This account is used to set up each server in your farm by running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard, the initial Farm Creation Wizard, and Windows PowerShell. For the examples in this article, the setup user administrator account is used for farm administration, and you can use Central Administration to manage it. Some configuration options, for example, configuration of the SharePoint 2013 Search query server, require local administration permissions. The setup user administrator account requires the following permissions:

It must have domain user account permissions.

It must be a member of the local administrators group on each server in the SharePoint farm.

This account must have access to the SharePoint databases.

If you use any Windows PowerShell operations that affect a database, the setup user administrator account must be a member of the db_owner role.

This account must be assigned to the securityadmin and dbcreator SQL Server security roles during setup and configuration.

Note:

The securityadmin and dbcreator SQL Server security roles might be required for this account during a complete version-to-version upgrade because new databases might have to be created and secured for services.

After you run the configuration wizards, machine-level permissions for the setup user administrator account include:

Membership in the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows security group.

Membership in the IIS_WPG role.

After you run the configuration wizards, database permissions include:

db_owner on the SharePoint server farm configuration database.

db_owner on the SharePoint Central Administration content database.

Warning:

If the setup user administrator account cannot a log on to the computer running SQL Server, the configuration wizards will not run correctly. If the account that you use to run the configuration wizards does not have the appropriate special SQL Server role membership or access as db_owner on the databases, the configuration wizards will not run correctly.

The server farm account, which is also referred to as the database access account, is used as the application pool identity for Central Administration and as the process account for the SharePoint Foundation 2013 Timer service. The server farm account requires the following permissions:

It must have domain user account permissions.

Additional permissions are automatically granted to the server farm account on web servers and application servers that are joined to a server farm.

After you run Setup, machine-level permissions include:

Membership in the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows security group for the SharePoint Foundation 2013 Timer service.

Membership in WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG for the Central Administration and Timer service application pools.

Membership in WSS_WPG for the Central Administration application pool.

After you run the configuration wizards, SQL Server and database permissions include:

Dbcreator fixed server role.

Securityadmin fixed server role.

db_owner for all SharePoint databases.

Membership in the WSS_CONTENT_APPLICATION_POOLS role for the SharePoint server farm configuration database.

Membership in the WSS_CONTENT_APPLICATION_POOLS role for the SharePoint_Admin content database.

The default content access account is used within a specific service application to crawl content, unless a different authentication method is specified by a crawl rule for a URL or URL pattern. This account requires the following permission configuration settings:

The default content access account must be a domain user account that has read access to external or secure content sources that you want to crawl by using this account.

For SharePoint Server sites that are not part of the server farm, you have to explicitly grant this account full read permissions to the web applications that host the sites.

Content access accounts are configured to access content by using the Search administration crawl rules feature. This type of account is optional and you can configure it when you create a new crawl rule. For example, external content (such as a file share) might require this separate content access account. This account requires the following permission configuration settings:

The content access account must have read access to external or secure content sources that this account is configured to access.

For SharePoint Server sites that are not part of the server farm, you have to explicitly grant this account full read permissions to the web applications that host the sites.

Excel Services uses the Excel Services unattended service account to connect to external data sources that require a user name and password that are based on operating systems other than Windows for authentication. If this account is not configured, Excel Services will not attempt to connect to these types of data sources. Although account credentials are used to connect to data sources of operating systems other than Windows, if the account is not a member of the domain, Excel Services cannot access them. This account must be a domain user account.

The WSS_CONTENT_APPLICATION_POOLS database role applies to the application pool account for each web application that is registered in a SharePoint farm. This enables web applications to query and update the site map and have read-only access to other items in the configuration database. Setup assigns the WSS_CONTENT_APPLICATION_POOLS role to the following databases:

The SharePoint_Config database (the configuration database).

The SharePoint_AdminContent database.

Members of the WSS_CONTENT_APPLICATION_POOLS role have the execute permission for a subset of the stored procedures for the database. In addition, members of this role have the select permission to the Versions table (dbo.Versions) in the SharePoint_AdminContent database. For other databases, the accounts planning tool indicates that access to read these databases is automatically configured. In some cases, limited access to write to a database is also automatically configured. To provide this access, permissions for stored procedures are configured.

The secure WSS_SHELL_ACCESS database role on the configuration database replaces the need to add an administration account as a db_owner on the configuration database. By default, the setup account is assigned to the WSS_SHELL_ACCESS database role. You can use a Windows PowerShell command to grant or remove memberships to this role. Setup assigns the WSS_SHELL_ACCESS role to the following databases:

The SharePoint_Config database (the configuration database).

One or more of the SharePoint Content databases. This is configurable by using the Windows PowerShell command that manages membership and the object that is assigned to this role.

Members of the WSS_SHELL_ACCESS role have the execute permission for all stored procedures for the database. In addition, members of this role have the read and write permissions on all of the database tables.

The SP_READ_ONLY role should be used for setting the database to read only mode instead of using sp_dboption. This role as its name suggests should be used when only read access is required for data such as usage and telemetry data.

Note:

The sp_dboption stored procedure is not available in SQL Server 2012. For more information about sp_dboption see sp_dboption (Transact-SQL).

The SP_DATA_ACCESS role is the default role for database access and should be used for all object model level access to databases. Add the application pool account to this role during upgrade or new deployments.

Note:

The SP_DATA_ACCESS role replaces the db_owner role in SharePoint 2013.

The SP_DATA_ACCESS role will have the following permissions:

Grant EXECUTE or SELECT on all SharePoint stored procedures and functions

WSS_ADMIN_WPG has read and write access to local resources. The application pool accounts for the Central Administration and Timer services are in WSS_ADMIN_WPG. The following table shows the WSS_ADMIN_WPG registry entry permissions.

This key contains the connection string and the ID of the configuration database to which the machine is joined. If this key is altered, the SharePoint 2013 installation on the machine will not function.

This key contains settings used during setup. If this key is altered, diagnostic logging may fail and setup or post-setup configuration may fail.

The following table shows the WSS_ADMIN_WPG file system permissions.

File system path

Permissions

Inherit

Description

%AllUsersProfile%\ Microsoft\SharePoint

Full control

No

This directory contains the file-system-backed cache of the farm configuration. Processes might fail to start and the administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted.

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss

Full control

No

This directory (or the corresponding directory under the Inetpub root on the server) is used as the default location for IIS Web sites. SharePoint sites will be unavailable and administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted, unless custom IIS Web site paths are provided for all IIS Web sites extended with SharePoint 2013.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0

Full control

No

This directory is the installation location for SharePoint 2013 binaries and data. The directory can be changed during installation. All SharePoint 2013 functionality will fail if this directory is removed, altered, or removed after installation. Membership in the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows security group is required for some SharePoint 2013 services to be able to store data on disk.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\WebServices

Read, write

No

This directory is the root directory where back-end Web services are hosted, for example, Excel and Search. The SharePoint 2013 features that depend on these services will fail if this directory is removed or altered.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data

Full control

No

This directory is the root location where local data is stored, including search indexes. Search functionality will fail if this directory is removed or altered. WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows security group permissions are required to enable search to save and secure data in this folder.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Logs

Full control

Yes

This directory is the location where the run-time diagnostic logging is generated. Logging functionality will not function properly if this directory is removed or altered.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server

Full control

Yes

Same as the parent folder.

%windir%\System32\drivers\etc\HOSTS

Read, write

Not Applicable

Not Applicable

%windir%\Tasks

Full control

Not Applicable

Not Applicable

%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15

Modify

Yes

This directory is the installation directory for core SharePoint 2013 files. If the access control list (ACL) is modified, feature activation, solution deployment, and other features will not function correctly.

This key contains the connection string and the ID of the configuration database to which the machine is joined. If this key is altered, the SharePoint 2013 installation on the machine will not function.

This key contains settings that are used during setup. If this key is altered, diagnostic logging may fail and setup or post-setup configuration may fail.

The following table shows the WSS_WPG file system permissions.

File system path

Permissions

Inherit

Description

%AllUsersProfile%\ Microsoft\SharePoint

Read

No

This directory contains the file-system-backed cache of the farm configuration. Processes might fail to start and the administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted.

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss

Read, execute

No

This directory (or the corresponding directory under the Inetpub root on the server) is used as the default location for IIS Web sites. SharePoint sites will be unavailable and administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted, unless custom IIS Web site paths are provided for all IIS Web sites extended with SharePoint 2013.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0

Read, execute

No

This directory is the installation location for the SharePoint 2013 binaries and data. It can be changed during installation. All SharePoint 2013 functionality will fail if this directory is removed, altered, or moved after installation. WSS_WPG read and execute permissions are required to enable IIS sites to load SharePoint 2013 binaries.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\WebServices

Read

No

This directory is the root directory where back-end Web services are hosted, for example, Excel and Search. The SharePoint 2013 features that depend on these services will fail if this directory is removed or altered.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Logs

Read, write

Yes

This directory is the location where the runtime diagnostic logging is generated. Logging functionality will not function properly if this directory is removed or altered.

This key contains the connection string and the ID of the configuration database to which the machine is joined. If this key is altered, the SharePoint 2013 installation on the machine will not function.

This key contains settings that are used during setup. If this key is altered, diagnostic logging may fail and setup or post-setup configuration may fail.

The following table shows the local file system permissions:

File system path

Permissions

Inherit

Description

%AllUsersProfile%\ Microsoft\SharePoint

Full control

No

This directory contains the file-system-backed cache of the farm configuration. Processes might fail to start and administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted.

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss

Full control

No

This directory (or the corresponding directory under the Inetpub root on the server) is used as the default location for IIS Web sites. SharePoint sites will be unavailable and administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted, unless custom IIS Web site paths are provided for all IIS Web sites extended with SharePoint 2013.

This key contains the connection string and the ID of the configuration database to which the machine is joined. If this key is altered, the SharePoint 2013 installation on the machine will not function.

This key contains settings that are used during setup. If this key is altered, diagnostic logging may fail and setup or post-setup configuration may fail.

The following table shows the administrators file system permissions:

File system path

Permissions

Inherit

Description

%AllUsersProfile%\ Microsoft\SharePoint

Full control

No

This directory contains the file-system-backed cache of the farm configuration. Processes might fail to start and administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted.

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss

Full Control

No

This directory (or the corresponding directory under the Inetpub root on the server) is used as the default location for IIS Web sites. SharePoint sites will be unavailable and administrative actions might fail if this directory is altered or deleted, unless custom IIS web site paths are provided for all IIS web sites that are extended with SharePoint 2013.

WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG can read the encrypted farm administration credential registry entry. WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG is only used for encryption and decryption of passwords that are stored in the configuration database. The following table shows the WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG registry entry permission:

This directory is the installation location for SharePoint 2013 binaries and data. It can be changed during installation. All SharePoint 2013 functionality will fail if this directory is removed, altered, or moved after installation.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\WebServices\Root

Read, execute

No

This directory is the root directory where back-end root Web services are hosted. The only service initially installed on this directory is a search global administration service. Some search administration functionality that uses the server-specific Central Administration Settings page will not work if this directory is removed or altered.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Logs

Read, write

Yes

This directory is the location where the run-time diagnostic logging is generated. Logging will not function properly if this directory is removed or altered.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Bin

Read, execute

No

This directory is the installed location of SharePoint 2013 binaries. All of the SharePoint 2013 functionality will fail if this directory is removed or altered.

The following table shows the all SharePoint 2013 service accounts file system permission:

File system path

Permissions

Inherit

Description

%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\LOGS

Modify

No

This directory contains setup and runtime tracing logs. If this directory is altered, diagnostic logging will not function correctly. All SharePoint 2013 service accounts must have write permission to this directory.